IDALIUM

also called Idalion, ancient city in southern Cyprus, near modern Dali. Of pre-Greek origin, Idalium was one of 10 Cypriot kingdoms listed on the prism (many-sided tablet) of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon (680669 BC). Eventually dominated by the Phoenician city of Citium, it became the centre of a cult of Aphrodite and of the Greco-Phoenician deity Resheph-Apollo. A terra-cotta model found there (now in the Louvre) is believed to represent the Resheph-Apollo temple.